We will do Everything the Lord has Said. What!?!?

“The people all responded together, “We will do everything the LORD has said.” So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD.” Exodus 19:8

Can you imagine telling God that you are willing and ready to do everything he has commanded…and say it with a straight face?

The Israelites are free from Egyptian rule, free from slavery, and free from brutality. They left Egypt and have been out in the desert for weeks. The people are tired, thirsty and hungry. They start to wonder if God brought them out to the desert to kill them. Then they start longing for home…not the home God is leading them to, but their homes back in Egypt. They would rather return to a place of slavery and brutality because it is what they know versus staying in the desert with an unknown future ahead. They would rather trust in their slave masters than trust in God who delivered them. Sounds like a sad place to be.

Finally we come to the base of Mt. Sinai as Moses goes up to talk with God. Moses comes to the elders and the people and reminds them of what God has done for them. He tells them all that the Lord had commanded. Instead of taking time to think over the proposal and think about the cost of their decision, they jump right in and say they are going to do everything that God has commanded. Huh?

The question is, can we trust these people? They only stopped grumbling for a moment after being freed from slavery, how long will this relationship last? Let-down after let-down God still chooses this people because of his Upper Story. In the lower story we see whiners and complainers, but God sees a people who will be used to proclaim his message to all nations, a people who will eventually bring forth his Son.

I learn a lot about myself from these people in the lower story. I think how easy it would be to long for the security of what is known, instead of listening to the call into the unknown. How easy it is to trust in my own ways and means instead of the plans that God has for me. I even think about the life of sin that was formally my master. When sin was my master, I indulged every temptation. It was a life that looked like ease, but in reality it was a life being ruined by sin.

Christ has freed us from the chains of slavery. He has set us free, so why would we ever long to return to it. But the reality of this is that we are a people no different from the Israelites. It is a different time and a different setting, but we continue in the same pattern. We have moments of pure clarity where following God is the only thing we want to do and will whole heartily say I will do everything…but we have moments that following God is the furthest from our minds. How do we get to that place?

We have a God that even when we turn our back, he never will. No matter how many times we turn away, he will continue to pursue us. God has been reckless with his grace. Time and again in the scriptures, God shows his reckless grace for all of his people, even those that were enemies of God’s people. It’s amazing that God takes us back…but that’s why grace is so amazing!